Speakers include New York Times Magazine-lauded playwright and Meadows Prize winner Will Power, PBS KIDS marketing guru Lesli Rotenberg, “Pay It Forward” leader Charley Johnson and dozens of other speakers.

The TEDxSMU program is built around rapid-fire, highly visual talks and performances, all wrapped around a theme this year of re:THINK. Among the presenters is Christian Genco of Colleyville, Texas – an SMU senior computer science major who has created a unique experiment in playing music by sampling various foods. Genco will be a presenter at both TEDxSMU and TEDxKids @SMU. Click the YouTube screen to watch him play The Star-Spangled Banner with fruits, vegetables and a beverage straw, or click this link to see Christian Genco’s performance in a new window.

“We are just pumped about the speakers and topics this year,” said TEDxSMU Executive Director Sharon Lyle. “This is our fourth year, now, and we can track real change in the Dallas area tied to people who were inspired to act after attending TEDxSMU. I can’t tell you how exciting that is.”

Tickets sales for TEDxSMU 2012 are closed, but the live-stream is free and designed to help the conversations that start at TEDxSMU get bigger, travel further and find new audiences.

TEDxSMU 2012 will guide its audience through a crowd-sourced hunt for Genghis Khan’s tomb, a bio-anthropological search for love in all the right places and demonstrations of science and gadgetry. The fourth annual event returns from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1 at a new, larger venue – Dallas City Performance Hall.

The last speaker for the Dec. 1 event is still a question mark and will audition for his or her spot on the TEDxSMU stage at 5 p.m. Friday, October 19 at Union Station. Anyone can attend the auditions, and the audience and celebrity judges (KERA’s Anne Bothwell, D Magazine’sZac Crain and former TEDxSMU audition winner Will Clarke) will vote on as many as a dozen, pre-screened hopefuls to select the speaker with the best idea worth spreading. Previous audition winner Jasmin Brand of Brandpointe will emcee, and a cash bar will be available. Tickets are available for $10.

“We are just pumped about the speakers and topics we’ve already confirmed,” said TEDxSMU Executive Director Sharon Lyle. “And the auditions are a wild card for us because we just don’t know what to expect! We had so many terrific auditions last year that we added three people to the program instead of the one we had planned for.“

This is the first year that TEDxSMU tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. TEDxSMU audiences previously were required to apply for ticket options, a process designed for the first three years to include as many thought leaders from as many backgrounds as possible in the experience. Building on the larger venue, the more widely available ticketing is designed to help the conversations that start at TEDxSMU get bigger, travel further and find new audiences.

Tickets, which are $150, include full-day conference attendance, a light breakfast, lunch, snacks throughout the day, and access to the Saturday evening after-party. Tickets may be purchased at tedxsmu2012.eventbrite.com.